Yamunanagar: 45 booked for mining over 2.04 lakh MT minerals having royalty worth Rs 1.02 crore

YAMUNANAGAR: Acting on the complaint of officer of mines and geology department (MGD), Haryana, the Yamunanagar police have registered a case of illegal mining against 45 persons on Thursday.
Among the 45 accused, 43 are from same village and two are owners of a stone crusher and a screening plant.
As per the case information, accused were found involved in committing illegal mining of 2,04,036 metric tonne (MT) of natural minerals including sand, gravel and boulders in Nagli-32 village in Bilaspur block of Yamunanagar district.
On the complaint of MGD inspector Aman, a case has been registered against 45 identified accused persons under Section 21(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation of Development) Act and 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Bilaspur police station on Thursday.
Inspector Aman alleged that accused committed illegal mining of raw mining material and supplied the same to screen plant and stone crusher, who further sold the minerals off the record without issuing mandatory e-Ravaana (pass and bills), causing huge loss to the state exchequer. Both the stone crusher and screening plant belong to a same firm at Nagli-32 village.
"After downloading sale and purchase record of accused firm from online portal of government, it came to light that, no sale of processed mineral was done after October 15, 2022 and no purchase of raw mining material after June 10, 2022. Regular sale and purchase of minerals was done but off the record", said MGD inspector.
MGD assistant mining engineer (AME) Rajeev Sangwan told the media that "We have seized manual registers of date wise data from office of both the plant and crusher which contains daily record of sale and purchase made off the record but not recorded or shown in the online e-Ravaana portal. These registers have date wise entries of suppliers of illegally mined minerals, receipt numbers, vehicle details, and mineral weight from April 1, 2022 to October 17, 2022".
AME Rajeev said involvement of 43 villagers i.e. illegal miners was found in excavation of minerals illegally in such a huge quantity from their private property or unknown locations.
The complaint reads that about 2.04 lakh MT illegally miner material in this case is worth royalty of Rs 1.02 crore, excluding the price of mineral and penalty.
This month several such cases of illegal mining have been registered by Yamunanagar police. Recently three mining firms were imposed environmental damage compensation of about Rs 18.7 crore by the National Green Tribunal. The case of unabated illegal mining in Yamuna river area in Yamunanagar district is also sub-judice in the Punjab and Haryana high court.